crowd. But it is manifestly difficult to interpret 

 their motives with any assurance, and it is more 

 likely they were provoking them to flight. At 

 such times they ascend the branches of a bush 

 and colled: in excited little groups on the buds 

 and flowers around the females, as if determined 

 they should go. No doubt it is an exciting day 

 with them, a sort of Labor Day demonstration. 

 In this case it is the womenfolk who are thus 

 bent on asserting their rights and doing as they 

 will. But why, having once ascended into the 

 larger world and the liberty of winged creatures, 

 must they insist on tearing off this means of 

 freedom to become crawling, laborious insedts? 

 They appear to hear two calls, one from above 

 and the other of the earth, earthy, and to obey 

 the latter. But it is with them the race and the 

 future always the future. 



To an ant a tree is a forest in itself. Ascending 

 its mammoth trunk to the upper regions, she 

 follows the great highways of the branches, out 

 into the unknown and trackless wilderness of leaves 

 in pursuit of her game the aphid. She knows 

 well in what wild and solitary uplands to look for 

 this mountain-goat. 



100 



